


The Devil You Know

by Arathergrimreaper



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men Evolution, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Multi, and really like his movie incarnation, mix up between evolution and movie verses here, only because I am very fond of azazel as a character, will also bleed into comic stuff as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:59:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5883646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arathergrimreaper/pseuds/Arathergrimreaper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everybody has a desire to know where they come from, but Kurt Wagner's starting to think he'd be much happier never knowing anything about his mutant heritage. </p><p>Story focuses mainly on Kurt and Azazel figuring out what the hell "Ohana" means, but does have a deep-running side plot involving (slightly) more mature Todd and Kurt getting to know one another and eventually falling in love (Gods, but I hate being a sappy fool, esp. at five in the morning).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Devil You Know

**Author's Note:**

> Blah, blah, blah, first chapter, blah, blah, blah, rating might go up, blah, blah, blah
> 
> (Don't expect them all to be this long. Also, I own nothing. This was not beta read either, but that may change in the future. For now, live with my mistakes the same way I do.)
> 
> There are other languages in this and I forgot to slap together a guide. Bah.
> 
> Basically:
> 
> Здравствуйте: Hello (Russian)  
> Да: Yes (Russian)  
> Ja: Yes (German)  
> Нет: No (Russian)  
> Gut: Good (German)  
> Was: What (German)  
> Verdammt: Damn (German)
> 
>  

Kurt Wagner presses his fingers into his eyes to alleviate the ache starting behind them. Dr. Groethke’s lecture on the effects of parental abuse in adolescence only adds to the feeling of dread that has been weighing down the young teleporter’s brain all morning.

The steady, but insistent, mental tug began just after breakfast. It is something that Kurt has not felt in years, but knows it can only lead to trouble in the long run. He choses to ignore it, hoping against all hope that the other will eventually give up as long as Kurt doesn’t answer.

It’s already been five hours, however, and Kurt’s temple starts to pound in time with his pulse. He swallows a groan of tired misery.

“Psst. Kurt, you okay?”

Hitching a tense smile into place, Kurt glances beside him at his best friend in the world, Kitty Pryde. She looks about as worried as she had when she thought Rogue had killed him all those years ago.

“Ja, no worries here.” he whispers, giving her a thumbs up with a shaky, disguised hand.

“You sure?” Her blue eyes dart to the front of the lecture hall. “‘Cause you look, like, really pathetic.”

Kurt waves off her concern, looking down at his notes. They are even more like chickenscratch than his usual handwriting (hard to hold a pen with fingers like his). He wonders vaguely if Kitty will let him copy off hers later.

The pair of them had not initially opted to go to the same college. Kitty had applied for places closer to her parents’ home and Kurt had considered teaching at the institute for a few years.

Lance Alvers had been the deciding factor, surprisingly enough. He had committed himself to getting a degree after finally getting his G.E.D. and had asked Kitty to attend the same university as him so they could keep each other on track. Kitty had agreed, but only if she had someone around in case her and Lance were on the rocks again to talk to.

Enter Kurt Wagner, the only mutant (it seemed to him anyway) without a definite plan for after high school.

It had been a difficult handful of years what with classes, inclimate weather, and even living together in a, much cheaper than someplace away from a college, rental house after the required on-campus years, but in just two weeks, all three of them are going to be walking across that stage in graduation gowns and caps. It all feels very surreal to Kurt.

“You want some Tylenol or something? I’ve got some in my purse.” Kitty offers as Kurt flinches at the now stabbing pain in his right eye.

“It won’t do any good, trust me, but thanks.”

She continues to watch him as he presses shaking palms against his forehead. His hidden fur is cold and damp with sweat and Kurt tightens his tail around his torso, just in case.

“Kurt.” Kitty says, reaching toward his shoulder.

Before she can make contact, Kurt lets out a gasp and ‘ports away.

Several people in the row in front of them cough, waving away the sulphuric cloud Kurt leaves in his wake. Others jump to alertness at the sound of collapsing air and turn in their seats to stare at up at Kitty.

“Ms...ah,”

“Pryde,” Kitty supplies, face hot. Old and familiar panic settles in her stomach at the searching look Dr. Groethke gives her and Kitty feels her feet sinking into the floor on instinct.

“Pryde. What—?”

“I sneezed. Allergies.” Kitty lies smoothly.

“Well, muffle it in your sleeve or a tissue next time, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, if you look in your textbook, it says...”

Kitty looks back over at Kurt’s desk. _Where did he go in such a hurry? Maybe the bathroom? He looked like he was going to be sick._

Figuring it was probably best to just grill him when she met up with him and Lance later for lunch, she catches up in her notes. With an exit like that, she doubts Kurt’s going to risk coming back to class.

* * *

 

As the world comes popping back into existence, Kurt hits the ground on his knees and clutches his head in his hands. What he just experienced was the single, most painful teleportation in his life and the fact that he wasn’t even the one in control of it makes him feel even worse.

Seagull cries alert Kurt to the fact that he is near the ocean and he lifts his eyes to see water stretching out beneath the grassy cliff he’s sprawled across.

“You have changed more than I anticipated, my son.” says a lightly accented voice behind him.

Kurt teleports to his feet, fighting down the wave of nausea that rolls through him with the action. Dropping into a fighting stance, he turns to face the familiar mutant, dressed in all black, at the rocky outcropping’s crest.

“Hello Azazel.” he says, already feeling his heart kick into overdrive at the sight of bright red skin and a tail as lethal as the man it’s attached to.

“Здравствуйте.” Azazel replies, an easy smile lighting up his scarred, yet handsome, features. “I did not mean to be quite so rough with my call, but I wished to see you. It has been too long. How are you?”

 _Terrible, now that you’re here,_ Kurt wants to scream, but he smiles back instead.

“Oh, you know, not killing anyone in the forests of Germany or anything.” he says, sweet as can be.

Azazel winces.

“I truly am sorry you had to witness that. That you had...to see me that way, Kurt—”

“Look, I’ve accepted the fact that my father is even more of a murderous liar than meine mother, all right? You don’t have to explain anything me, Azazel, just stop popping up like this.”

“Your mother?” Azazel asks, dark brows lifting comically. “You have met her?”

“When I was...in high school...we found one another.” Kurt replies, momentarily distracted by Azazel’s hopeful tone. “We’re not close or anything.”

“She...she never said anything.”

“Wait, you’ve met her? I mean, outside of...well...me?” He barely suppresses a repulsed shudder at the images this thought evokes.

Azazel’s laugh is rich and deep. “Да, we are good friends, actually. In my last visit to this plane, however, she never told me that she has spoken with you. One would think it would be the first words out of her mouth, considering….”

Kurt sighs. Though it had eaten him inside when he was younger that Mystique was his mother, he had recently come to the decision that it really doesn’t matter if she is or not. Either way, this is the last subject he wants to discuss. Hoping Azazel will drop it, he huffs, “She dropped me off a bridge. Ja, I know.”

“I had never seen her so broken.” Azazel admits, walking closer. It takes everything in Kurt not to back up.

“Not so broken that she didn’t try to replace me,” he says to distract himself from the nervous writhing of his stomach. Azazel freezes.

“‘Replace’?”

“My adopted sister, Rogue. She’s a thing that happened. Though, to be fair to her, it was more likely because of her powers. She’s like us. Sort of.” Perhaps it isn’t the best idea to reveal Mystique’s connection with Rogue to someone like Azazel, but Kurt is aware he is entering “babble like a complete ass” mode. Fear always has that affect on him. Endless talking and jokes are just how he seems to cope, according to Kitty.

To Kurt’s surprise, Azazel looks thoughtful rather than upset.

“I have met this girl. Once, I believe.”

“ _You have_?”

“Yes. She was very little, but...sweet.” Azazel sounds almost fond. “She told me she liked my beard and wore a lot of pink and, uh, Hello Kitty? The white cat with the bow, Да?”

If Kurt survives this encounter, he is never letting Rogue live this down.

“We should catch up. It has been thirteen years.”

Kurt’s jaw drops in disbelief.

“You...want to…‘catch up’?” he asks incredulously.

“With you? Always.” Azazel replies, not missing a beat. Gesturing to all of Kurt, he asks, “For instance, since when do you look like this?”

“Since I came here to live in the institute. The professor gave me something to make me look normal.”

Azazel shakes his dark head,“My son, you _are_ normal. And I presume you mean ‘here’ as in America and _not_ Europe?”

Wait. What?

“ _Are_ we in Europe?” Kurt asks, suddenly wary of the rocky landscape and the gray skies.

Azazel at least has the grace to look sheepish. “Да, I believe you grew up calling it ‘Schottland’.”

The bottom drops out of Kurt’s stomach. “Scotland?” he repeats numbly.

“Дa.”

 _No wonder it felt like I was dying._ Kurt thinks, verging on hysteria.

“I can’t teleport back. That’s way too far. I’ll get eaten by sharks or suffocate in a castle wall or—”

“Нет. I will take you back. I just wanted us to have the opportunity...” Azazel begins to assure him, but trails off again. He extends a carmine-colored hand for Kurt to grab onto.

Kurt doesn’t accept it. “‘Opportunity’?” he says.

Azazel’s expression turns wistful. “My time is never long in this world. What little I get to spend with you is something I treasure very much, Kurt.”

Kurt actually has to bury some guilt at this admission, Azazel’s suddenly intense stare causing him to shake.

“I don’t really know how to feel about you,” Kurt says, wrapping his arms around himself, “I watched you cut men down, Azazel. Maybe not _gut_ men, but they weren’t doing anything anyone else hasn’t. I’m not exactly Archangel, after all.”

“We are all thankful for that, my son.” Azazel cuts him off, tone surprisingly sharp, dropping his hand to his side. “Archangel, as you refer to him, is no better than you or I. He is practically kin, as a matter of fact.”

“ _Really_? Him too?” Kurt’s eyes travel up and down his father’s form in obvious judgement.

“Not directly, нет. He comes from an ancient line of mutants. As old, if not older than, myself. We have always been destined to destroy one another. It is our way.”

“That sounds...terrifying. Remind me never to introduce you two then.” Kurt quips, glancing at his inducer for the time. “Verdammt, I need to get back. Kitty’s probably scouring the campus for me.”

“Another friend?” Azazel asks. There is a suspicious amount of interest in his voice that Kurt does not like.

“Jaaaaaaa, she is.” he drawls, “Why?”

“Just wondering if my child has anyone special in his life, is all. A perfectly normal thing to ask after. So, how much time do you spend with this…‘Kitty’?”

There is a slyness to his tone, if not his expression, which is only pleasantly curious.

“We attend college together. She’s another mutant I met at the institute. Her _boyfriend_ is also in school with us.” Kurt stresses.

Azazel’s mouth twists in that way it usually does when he is planning on being, well, devilish.

“I see. Well, I would not worry about this. You are my son, after all.” he says, offering up his hand again.

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” Kurt demands, moving forward to place his seemingly fuzzless one in it. “I wasn’t raised by you, you know.”

“This does not matter. You carry more charm in your left eye than most do in their entire bodies. You get that from me. Though, your mother is also quite charming, as well. I will tell you about it someday.” Azazel insists.

Kurt doubts Mystique has ever been anything other than hateful and conniving, but before he can even suggest as much, the world once more falls away in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

 

“So, you ‘ported away and then went ‘nowhere’?” Kitty asks. Her face is the very image of ‘not buying it, buster’.

“Ja.” Kurt lies again before stuffing his mouth with cheesy fries.

“Kurt, you know you can tell me anything, right?” Kitty tells him, fork missing her pasta as she continues to watch him.

Kurt groans inwardly. He had been afraid of this conversation from the moment he’d found himself on the cliff in Scotland and with good reason. Kitty Pryde did not let things go without incentive.

“I already told you everything, Kitty.” Kurt says.

“Kurt, you—oh, hey Lance.”

 _Saved by the rock head_ , Kurt thinks, just barely keeping himself from whooping out loud as the other mutant drops down into a seat beside him. The inevitable has only been prolonged, if he is being truly honest with himself, anyway.

In the last five years, it had become apparent that what Lance Alvers lacks in terms of smarts and natural talent, he more than makes up for in dedication and loyalty. Even Kurt has to admit, college Lance is much more tolerable than high school Lance. He doesn’t believe the two of them are ever going to be good friends, no matter how hard Kitty tries to get them to be, but ‘the rock head’ is almost decent when he’s apart from the rest of the Brotherhood.

“Do you guys have Collinger too? That guy is such a tight-ass, it’s insane.” Lance asks without preamble, biting into his sandwich like he wishes it were his professor’s head instead.

“He’s nice to me.” Kitty says with a shrug, “Did you bring food to his class again?”

“Just a soda and he got all pissy at me for opening it while he was talking. What kind of person gets ‘distracted’ by a can opening?”

“Collinger does.” Kitty laughs, reaching across the table to pat him on the shoulder. “I’m sure you know more than most of the people who end up in his class anyway. He teaches seismology stuff, right?”

Lance nods, taking her hand in his own.“Yeah, he’s about the only one who does here and it’s required for my major. Between that and my thesis, I’m dying.”

“Ew, stupid thesises.” Kitty says, her face scrunching up.

“Actually, it’s theses when it’s plural.” Kurt tells her before downing the rest of his soda.

“How is it, someone, for who English is a second language, speaks it better than me, someone who’s spoken it her whole life?”

“Um, it’s ‘for whom’.” Kurt corrects her, trying not to laugh.

“Ugggh.” Kitty shoots a death glare at Lance as he starts to laugh, only to start choking on bread and ham.

“In case you’re forgetting, it was one of the conditions Professor Xavier set: I had to improve my English if I wanted to transfer to the States.”

“Yeah, well did he say anything about correcting mine, _Herr Wunderkind_?”

“No, but the good news is, your German pronunciation is improving nicely.”

After spending a good portion of their lunch arguing about the finer points of grammar and which language sounds the most ‘angry’, it was back to class, Kurt’s and Kitty’s lasts for the day. Luckily, they didn’t live far from campus so it wasn’t a big deal if they left separately due to schedule conflicts.

“So,” Kitty says as they pull out of the lot. Hers and Lance’s relationship had gotten serious enough to warrant Lance letting her drive his (slightly newer, but still not _new_ ) Jeep home as long as she doesn’t mind picking him up when he finally gets done with classes in the evening.

“‘So’?” Kurt repeats just as slow, eyeing her warily.

“What was with that now-I-see-you-now-I-don’t sitch?”

“Are you still on about that?”

“Yup.” she deadpans.

“Kitty, it’s really no big deal. Everything’s fine.”

“Then why did you look like a Grumpy Gus when you got to the café? Did someone see you pop back?”

“Was? No.”

Things have settled down some since the initial reveal of mutants ten years prior, but not so much that being “out” is the safest option. The three of them were lucky to end up at a such a liberal university that didn’t seem to recall details of what the first generation of outed mutants took to calling “The Sentinel Incident”. Either that or they simply didn’t care enough to bother them about it, what with prospective futures on the line and replacing the past ‘oppressive’ generations with a brand new one. College is just funny that way, Kurt has noticed.

“Just making sure. If it really wasn’t so bad, why did you only eat _one small_ order of cheese fries? You get sick or something?

“A little, ja.” It _had_ been nauseating, travelling all that distance again. He’s still convalescing.

“Well, don’t scare me like that again. I’d lose my shit if anything happened to you.” Kitty says, looking at him just long enough to go careening into a van. Or, at least, she would have, if she didn’t phase them and the car through it at the last second.

“Don’t lose your shit. Eyes on the road, at any rate. According to Hank, I might outlive all of you, anyway. Except Logan.” Kurt says, heart in his throat.

“That’s another thing that worries me,” Kitty tells him, thankfully once more watching where she is going. “Eventually, the only person you’ll have for company that remembers any of this junk _is_ Wolverine. Promise me you’ll find more friends, Kurt.”

“Ach c’mon. Logan isn’t that bad. You like him too.”

“I do, but he’s...Kurt, do you know why so many people like you? Once they get to know you, I mean.”

Kurt is honestly taken aback. He’s never heard his typically earnest friend sound quite as serious as she does now.

“Because I’m fuzzy and a popular primary color?” he guesses jokingly, trying to lighten the too-heavy mood.

“You’re so, just like, _bright_. If that makes any sense.” Kitty says, pulling into their housing development. After putting the Jeep in park in the driveway of their home away from home, she takes off her seatbelt to turn and look at him properly, enough sincerity in her eyes to make Kurt squirm. “It would be totally understandable if you decided to be cruel or bitter towards everyone, but you’re not. Yeah, Logan can be nice and genuine and all, but Kurt, you have this energy that’s just, like, _fun_. I think people are even drawn to you because of it. Nothing really compares to you.”

“I know you can’t see it, but I am blushing and hella uncomfortable with all this praise, which says something since I’m told I’m quite the attention-seeker.” Kurt says, bringing his hands up to press his palms to his burning cheeks.

“It’s one hundred percent the truth. Ask anyone.” Kitty replies, and she is smiling. Nudging him gently with her shoulder, she grabs her bag and phases out of the car. Kurt takes the time to open his door, still wary of teleporting again so soon. Azazel’s words come floating back to him, unbidden, and he swears under his breath. No matter what his biological father may like to think, they are _nothing_ alike.

Kitty has already phased a hand through the door to unlock it by the time Kurt catches up to her, and just barely opens it when she’s attacked by a screaming mass of purple, red, pink, and black that drags her in.

“Kitty!” Kurt ‘ports inside without a second thought, regretting the decision as soon as he feels his lunch threatening to make a repeat appearance. One look at the situation tells him he needn’t have even bothered.

The ‘assailant’ is nothing more than the combined bodies of Tabitha Smith and Wanda Maximoff, who have Kitty trapped in an epic bear hug between them in the middle of the living room.

“Heeeey, what’s new Pussycat?” Tabitha says, rocking them all back and forth.

“Oh my God, Tabbi, what are you even _doing_ here, you beautiful disaster?” Kitty laughs.

“We hear, through a very reliable source, that somebody is getting ready to graduate from college.”

Switching off his inducer, Kurt clears his throat, flinching when three pairs of eyes fix on him.

“A few somebodies actually. Love the new ‘do, Blue. You look even better than I do with short hair.”

“Danke, and you’re, uh, purple now?”

Tabitha releases her hold on Kitty to flick a lock of waist-length, violet hair over her shoulder. “I’m thinking a blue undercut next.”

Before Kurt can respond to this bit of news, she’s snatching him into a crushing hug as well.

“I don’t think I’d pull the color off as well as you, though,” she tells him.

Feeling his face get hot for the second time in one day, Kurt looks over at Wanda, who has changed a little herself. Her hair is longer, at any rate, and she appears to be wearing more red than usual.

“Hi.” he grunts out, breath somewhat non-existent as Tabitha seems to be trying to squeeze it all out of him.

“Hi,” she says back, granting him a small smile in return. Kurt has a lot of respect for Wanda, though he has far more reason to fear her. She did hand Mystique over to him when he requested it. She and the rest of the Brotherhood would have been well within their rights to keep his mother’s immobilized body, but she had acquiesced. _She isn’t like the others._ Kurt thinks, _She’s not even like Tabitha much either, to be honest._

This brings him to his next question.

“Hey,...you two came here...together?” he asks, trying and failing to gently extricate himself from Tabitha’s grasp.

“Yup. Amara wanted to come too, but she said she has to knuckle down and pass her finals so she can actually go back to school next year, so she sent me ahead.”

“That’s not what I—”

“I think Kurt’s trying to say that he didn’t think Pietro would ever let Wanda visit X-Men like this.” Kitty interjects, giving Wanda her own curious look. “I mean, Pietro doesn’t own you or anything, but he seems really...well….”

“Like a major pain in the ass? He is.” Wanda says without preamble, finally letting Kitty go. “So is our father, but I told them that I need time away from both of them or I might...pose an immediate threat to their health.”

Kurt shivers at her icy tone. He does not know in any great detail what exactly Magneto has subjected Wanda to, but, according to Kitty, it’s bad enough to make Mystique appear saintlike in comparison. The saddest part is, Wanda had only managed to remember what her father had had wiped from her mind two years ago and that had been with the combined abilities of Agatha Harkness and Professor Xavier.

“Well, we’re glad you’re both here, but it’s super early, don’t you think?” Kitty asks, “We aren’t graduating until the ninth.”

“Well, there _is_ another reason we’re here,” Tabitha tells them, releasing Kurt so she can rifle around in one of her pockets. She pulls out a green and black strip of paper and waves it at Kitty. “We scored tickets to see this band performing in Buffalo, so we decided to come down early.”

“Are you staying in town then?”

“For now, yeah. Borrowed a camper and are kind of roughing it while we’re on our little roadtrip.”

“‘Borrowed’ or ‘commandeered’?” Kurt asks, lifting a brow.

Tabitha grants him a wicked smile over her shoulder. “You know me too damn well, Blue.”

“Ja, I do.”

“Well, Lance is still doing classes, but after he’s done we can all go out and catch up for a few hours.” Kitty says, glancing at the clock over the still-open door as she heads over to close it. “Dinner’s totes on me tonight.”

“I’ll help since you always go overboard.” Kurt tells her with a long-suffering sigh.

“I do not.”

“Applebee’s, last semester.”

“Okay, that was a—”

“Then there was that candle store we just _had_ to stop in.”

“I had coupons—”

“Remember the Petco? I do. We don’t even have any pets, Kitty, but you spent over two hundred dollars on brushes and grooming mitts.”

“Well, if you didn’t shed so much. Besides, it was an after-Christmas sale. Couldn’t let that slide by.”

Kurt gives Wanda and Tabitha a beseeching look, but all he receives is an amused grin from the former and a slow head shake from the latter.

“I can’t believe you would try to deny Pryde her God-given right to shop until she drops, Blue. For shame.” Tabitha says, clicking her tongue for emphasis.

“He just likes to give me a hard time. Gotta make up for his actual sister not being around or something.” Kitty tells her as she heads for her room at the end of the hall. “Make yourselves at home. Better yet, pick out a movie. We’ve got plenty to choose from.”

Kurt dodges a patented Kitty Pinch to his side and sticks his tongue out at her as she passes, earning the same in return

“So, how’s college life? Bet the parties are wild.” Tabitha asks, already heading for the DVD shelf.

“They’re not bad, full of guys like Duncan, though. College is nice. Really miss high school workloads now, to be honest.”

“Seriously?”

“Ja. I’ve got so many essays due in the next three days, I don’t know how I’m going to get them all done in time.”

“You seem...pretty calm, all things considered.” Wanda points out, tone impressed.

“Nope, just kind of dead inside. The panic doesn’t really set in until it’s four in the morning, you’ve drunk all the caffeine you can find, and you still haven’t written anything worth a passing grade because you have discovered some really cute cat videos online instead. ”

“Yikes.”

“Glad I said ‘balls to that’ then.” Tabitha says, nose wrinkled in disgust as she fingers through the movie cases. “I can learn stuff and still enjoy myself, thanks.”

Kurt merely shrugs. College isn’t for everyone. He still isn’t entirely sure it’s worth it, himself.

“So, what about you and that Amanda girl we went to school with? She come see you or what?”

It is nothing if not a day for awkward conversations, Kurt realizes.

“Um, no, actually.”

“‘No’? You guys Skyping then? I don’t think she could live unless she’s seeing you, like, every day or something. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s kind of weird about your looks. Almost fetishizing, really.”

“I noticed. Actually, Amanda and I don’t really talk anymore. We broke up.”

Tabitha’s face is the portrait of sympathy when she looks over at him. Wanda is wearing a similar expression, which somehow manages to make him feel even worse.

“Shit, Blue. I’m sorry. Since when?”

“Since a couple years now. She said it was just too hard to live so far away and she met someone she really liked where she’s going to school.” Kurt says, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Want me to go and redecorate her bedroom for ya? I will if you ask me to. Put in a nice skylight.” That worrisome troublemaker’s smile is back in place.

“No, it’s fine. I’ve gotten over it, for the most part.”

“You’ll find someone, I have no doubt in my mind about that. Someone better than that.”

“Yeah right. Who would date this?” He gestures to all of himself. “Would _you_ date this?”

“Nope.” Tabitha says, movie in hand. Kurt and Wanda gape at her, taken aback at her bluntness.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. You’re too sweet for me, Blue.” she continues as she sets the DVD player up, “I nearly corrupted you the last time we had something like a date. You would have ended up in that jail cell right along with me, getting bailed out by the professor. Face it: Boom Boom is no good for Little Boy Blue. I meant someone decent.”

Kurt shares a look with Wanda, who looks about as exasperated as he feels.

“What about Amara?” she asks her, going to sit on the secondhand couch that leans a little to the left. Wanda doesn’t appear too perturbed by it, perched as she is on the end. “She’s nice and I don’t think you’ve corrupted her any. She didn’t even come because she wants decent grades.”

“That’s what she wants you to think.” Tabitha snorts. “Girl can chug Jaeger like it’s water and flashes her tits at concerts with me. Don’t let her fool you, Hexy. She’s a good girl gone baaaaad.”

“Please don’t call me that.” Wanda sighs with a look heavenward.

“But it suits you so well, don’t it, Blue?”

“Ach, between ‘Nightcrawler’, ‘Elf’, and ‘Blue’ I’m not even sure who _I’m_ supposed to be anymore.”

“At least it’s better than ‘Shadowcat’, ‘Half-Pint’, ‘Katze’, and ‘Pussycat’.” Kitty says as she reappears, phasing through the T.V. She’s in her ‘comfy’ clothes, a T-shirt and sweatpants with cat slippers.

“You’ve never complained about my nickname before.” Kurt grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest in mock hurt.

“It means ‘cat’. There’s only so many ways you can say ‘cat’ before it gets old. Logan is the only one to give me a name that has nothing to do with cats.” Kitty replies, grabbing his arm to drag him over to the couch.

“Aha, that is why you like him so much.”

“Sit and shut your hamburgerhole. What are we watching?”

Tabitha plops herself down on the other side of Kurt, remote held in front of her like a wand.

“The underrated beauty that is _Zoolander_.” she says, hitting play on the menu.

Kurt has to admit, it’s nice to have the distraction of old friends and a crappy movie to take him out of his thoughts for a bit. He knows that when it ends, he’s going to be right back to trying to not think about Azazel and what the ancient mutant’s visit could mean for him in the weeks to come.


End file.
